Brain, The (So we move up in the list of blogs...)
Back fro For You and ready to get back to the business of doing NADA! before school starts... So yeah... the name change... yeah it's a cheap ploy, but we need it :)
Project new and improved Confirmation!
Posted On: December 06th, 2007 at 11:35 pm
It's finals week at Concordia in Austin... well the end of finals week that is. I spent the morning before my 12:30 final today with a friend studying for our tests. I was “studying” for Lifespan Development and she was studying for Confirmation. I think I ended up helping her more 
. As if I hadn't learned enough about what our DCE program teaches....
Apparently, in order to teach children how to confess the faith they were baptized into, you have to learn to modernize that teaching. In other words, you have to find ways of teaching them that they will be interested in. Skits, movies, power points, songs... you know, things that will attract children to the faith. She also established that they are teaching them that in order for one to commune, there is not a need to be confirmed in the faith! Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the point of being confirmed before communing to learn what it is that you're receiving. Maybe it's just me... And when you put two and two together (and get 3, because this is Concordia after all) this means that women (and lay people) are teaching confirmation. So what does that mean the pastor is doing? Is it not the pastor's place to be teaching the children? Or at least seem most appropriate?
Now, I can understand using modern examples to demonstrate faith or whatever. But in order to actually teach them? To make it interesting? I could be the only one that thinks that there is no need to baby them, and make everything easier to understand. By the point they are entering confirmation, they should be old enough to catch on. That's what the catechism is for. Teaching. Learning. So why not just use it? When I asked if they had even opened their catechisms this semester... I was pained by the answer. She used it once or twice on her own... but never in class. * sigh *
I've been lucky enough to talk to a couple of the profs/pastors at school. They know my reasoning of not liking the DCE program and the pietistic nature of the people that attend. But in my own way, I am learning a lot. A lot about people and a lot about faith and the tests that you can be put through...
Welcome to ConU. And people wonder why I refused to do the DCE program...
Comments:
Re: Project new and improved Confirmation!
Posted On: December 07th, 2007 at 10:59 am by luvable lutheran
Interesting observations on confirmation practices. When I went through confirmation in the late 80s, I hadn't seen Luther's catechism as we used a workbook. I went to college and was a member at 3 other LCMS congregation in 3 states before I met a pastor who cared enough to give me a catechism. Through bible studies and preaching at that congregation, there were a lot of gaps that were filled in as well.
That said, it makes me wonder if we are doing our youth an injustice by not teaching them as has been done in the last 2000 years in the Christian and Lutheran church. Christ first commanded teaching everything He has commanded in Matthew 28, commonly referred to as the Great Commission. Furthermore, Luther's catechism, which is taken direcltlt form Scripture, makes the essentials of the Lutheran and Christian faith easier to learn. Why wouldn't people want to utilize these tools that have been effective and acceptable for Lutheran Christians over the past 500-2000 years?
Confirmation and catechesis is mch more than attracting people to the faith, it is insructing and TEACHING them the faith as Christ has commanded. He didn't say just invite them to church, but out of love for His people, our neighbors he commanded that they be taught as well. By being taught the Christian faith, one learns how it is different from all other religions and with Lutheranism, how it is different from all other denominations. More importantly people are taught the truth and promises Christ has given us out of his love for us, that He sent His only son to die for us and redeem us from our sin. He says, "I am the way the Truth and the life, nobody comes to the Father except by me."
Christ is pretty clear on what to teach, but I think your question is on the how to teach. I wonder why they want to revinvent the wheel instead of using what's worked for the church over the last 2000 years? The other question is what are they teaching? Is it even Lutheran or is it a watered down generic Christianity that any denomination or even the Mormons can attest to? So many times these days, people get caught up in trying to make the church new and improved and try methods used by others, that they lose sight of what makes us unique as Lutherans and going to the basics of what Scripture teaches. I'd be more likely to believe the historic Scripture anyhow and not some new teaching or way of teaching that might being doubt to what God has commanded to be taught. I'd rather have the real thing!
Re: Project new and improved Confirmation!
Posted On: December 07th, 2007 at 1:32 pm by John Pawlitz
You're completely right, and they're completely wrong. If that is mildly disappointing, learning "A lot about people and a lot about faith and the tests that you can be put through..." is nothing shameful, if you can also be thankful for the disappointing lesson.
Re: Project new and improved Confirmation!
Posted On: December 07th, 2007 at 6:45 pm by luvable lutheran
... in how not to do onfirmation?.....
Re: Project new and improved Confirmation!
Posted On: December 10th, 2007 at 4:29 pm by John Pawlitz
hmm, if I may say...how to be in the minority that advocates straightforward (and ideologically transparent) approaches
Re: Project new and improved Confirmation!
Posted On: December 10th, 2007 at 4:58 pm by FemLem2
It is a really disappointing lesson to learn. Maybe I'm bold to say some of this... it may not even be my place. I had gone to Concordia hoping to receive the Gospel, and this semester I think I actually got more from my World Lit prof (who happens to be a pastor) than anyone else.
But to just realize that this is the future of our church... hurts me a lot. I actually went in to talk to one my profs (also a pastor) and somehow spilled a lot of thoughts, and he seems to agree with Confessionalism (as do many of the pastors) but nothing ever changes. It's like none of them have the guts to stand up for the faith...
I don't see how they can possibly teach the things they teach and still be considered Lutheran. Jesus seems to get left out of everything at this school. And what I've learned... especially the DCE classes.
Re: Project new and improved Confirmation!
Posted On: December 11th, 2007 at 11:32 pm by John Pawlitz
College is NOT an enlightening place so much as a speculating place. It is a place to become competent in ideological jargon. People don't care what your personal opinion is, so long as you express it in the appropriate lingo. You are also allowed to make any calculation about operations, so long as you are not convinced, by it, that there is anything wrong (except for in the cases of global warming and racism/sexism).
According to such rule, narrow "freedom" consists in the ability to have an above average work ethic (even though this might be taken away from us if certain events transpire). When you go to college, you get "qualified" which means that you can argue your opinions in a professional setting. In reality, you can generate your opinions on motivations that are either entirely corrupt or perfectly moral, but this never comes to the surface if you don't want it to, and it is probably imprudent to make that your selling point. Then you use your freedom to try to get things done in a manner that is productive, but if you don't have the resources to accomplish something, then--no matter how noble the purpose--no one else is bound to be controlled by your rationale or give energy accordingly. You have to pay someone to care about what you think, unless they are your family, a good friend, or someone you go to church with, and that is freedom. )
Now Christian freedom and indeed what we might hope for in the term exceed this, because they, in part, depend on enlightenment (as in "enlightens me with his gifts") and convictions (about what is unseen). That is the religious freedom we relished so much in the country up until recent decades--the freedom to criticize something at its very foundation for no other reason than to generate better information about it. A good sermon does this to us on Sundays. Don't let the idea that Concordia is a Lutheran institution get to your head--the way of the world to respond to emotion with emotion and to reasons with reason, but to enlightenment with ignorance and to conviction with mockery.
I apologize for such a lengthy comment, but hope there is something interesting in it for you.
Re: Project new and improved Confirmation!
Posted On: January 03rd, 2008 at 2:32 pm by J Hansen
I hope that finals worked out well for you!
I hadn't seen that St. Augustine book before, which you listed in this post. He did quite a bit for early church music, so I might have to check it out. Thanks for posting that!